Check Your Crystal Ball at the Door

“What Crystal Ball are you talking about?!?”, you say.

That Crystal Ball that you consult before, during, and after you talk to someone about working with you.

You know, the one that says, “She probably won’t want to work with me”, before you talk to a prospective client.

Or the one that says, “She is going to think my price is too high”, when you are about to say how much it costs to work with you.

Or how about the one that says, “This isn’t going to work because I’m no good at it”, when you think about your business on a challenging day?

Yes, that Crystal Ball. The one you check every time you promote yourself and your work, ask someone to work with you, or tell them the investment to get the transformation and experience you offer.

Checking that Crystal Ball is going to make you miserable because it will lie to you – every time.

I know because I do it too! So does everyone I know who offers services from their passion and their experience.

And the results are disappointing, heartbreaking, and soul-stealing.

Back when I was 13, I was a competitive swimmer. It was a great sport for the hot, humid Southern summers because the water was way cooler than the air. And I was good at swimming. I loved the freestyle sprints.

At one meet, I was up against a swimmer known to be the fastest in our age range. She was 14, pretty, and had a boyfriend, so she had a lot on my gangly, awkward teen-aged self in addition to her reputation for speed in the pool.

As the start whistle blew, we dove into the pool, and I swam as fast as I could. I could see my competitor so I knew that I was keeping up with her for the first lap. On the lap back to the finish line, I couldn’t see her.

And half way during that return lap with just a quarter of the race left and not knowing where my competitor was, I said to myself, “I bet I can’t win this race.”

Yep, simple as that, I consulted my Crystal Ball, and that’s what it told me.

You know what comes next. Yes, I slowed down – just a fraction. Not enough for Coach to know, but I knew.

When I touched the wall and looked up, I saw that the other swimmer had touched just a fraction of a section before I did. If I had gone for it, I would have won.

In that moment, I knew that I had defeated myself. I believed what I projected to be true, and I lost. I lost the race, I lost heart, and I lost belief in my ability to win. It was devastating, and all because of listening to that blasted Crystal Ball!

My life and work since then have been an effort to understand what I had done to myself and how not to do it anymore.

As I have worked my way into answering the questions raised by my loss in the pool and mastering techniques to avoid defeat and go for victory, I share it because I know you consult you own Crystal Ball, which lies to you. That’s just what it does.

So when you talk about your services, your prices, and the value of working with you, I know you consult your Crystal Ball.

What you do next is key.

If you believe and act on what your Crystal Ball says, you will defeat yourself. You have to learn not to listen to the lies the Crystal Ball tells you in order to succeed in your business.

If you know that you believe and act on what your Crystal Ball tells you too much, let’s talk. There are ways to get out of the stuck place, the disappointment, and the defeat that comes with listening to the lies.

What is the #1 lie you are telling yourself about succeeding in your business? If you turned that lie around what would be possible?

Have a go at turning your lie into a truth and see what you create with that simple activity.